{"ID":22918792,"CreatedAt":"2026-09-17T01:02:08.507062015Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-09-20T18:11:56.143995915Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.17853","arxiv_id":"2609.17853","title":"AfriSyCo: Measuring Assertive Framing, Verification, and Wording Sensitivity Around African-Language Content","abstract":"AfriSyCo studies answer switching around African-language factual content with two complementary layers: native-language follow-ups and a controlled cross-language factorial whose question, options, and target remain in the African language while the follow-up framing is English. We analyze 1,415 turn-1-correct model-language-item observations derived from 100 source questions across seven open-weight checkpoints and six languages; turn-1-correct denotes observed first-response accuracy, not demonstrated knowledge. Under native prompts, assertive endorsement produces 29.3 percentage points more any-turn false-target selection than mention-plus-verification (M+V), with a 19.0-point immediate T2 contrast. In the precommitted 2 x 2 factorial, averaged over three tested prompt families, assertive framing increases target selection by 30.4 points (95% CI [28.4, 32.3]); verification decreases it by 17.4 points, while the assertive effect rises from 20.5 points without verification to 40.2 with it (interaction +19.7). The effect remains 34.8 points among 611 observations correct after option reordering. Magnitude varies sharply by wording and checkpoint: prompt-family effects span 20.1-42.5 points, a Twi/Qwen3 paraphrase shifts target selection from 70.8% to 4.2%, and checkpoint effects span 9.2-47.0 points. Prompt realization is therefore part of the measurement problem.","short_abstract":"AfriSyCo studies answer switching around African-language factual content with two complementary layers: native-language follow-ups and a controlled cross-language factorial whose question, options, and target remain in the African language while the follow-up framing is English. We analyze 1,415 turn-1-correct model-l...","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.17853","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.17853v1","authors":"[\"David Ababio Awuni\",\"Rose-Mary Owusuaa Mensah Gyening\",\"Elvis Gyasi Owusu\"]","published":"2026-09-15T21:22:17Z","proceeding":"cs.CL","tasks":"[\"cs.CL\",\"cs.AI\",\"cs.LG\"]","methods":"[]","has_code":false}